Literally hundreds of fixes have been applied which deliver significantly improved performance and stability. DAZ Studio 4.5 is based upon an entirely new file format that enables a variety of highly anticipated features including scene sharing, "Ready-to-Render" scenes and selective scene saving. The updated 3Delight render engine delivers a multitude of new features and improved performance. And DAZ has taken pains to continually improve the overall user experience.

You ARE going to want to get DAZ Studio 4.5!

This version is available to all customers and will run either with or without a serial number - (You will be asked to enter a serial number each time you launch the application until you do so. You may also use your current DAZ Studio 4.x serial number.

Installing DAZ Studio 4.5 will uninstall any previous installations of DAZ Studio 4.x, and we recommend running only one version of DAZ Studio 4.x on the same machine.

The default content that comes with DAZ Studio will also be uninstalled but you can download and install the free default content (now in the new file format) separately. This will make the download size smaller and quicker to obtain. Separate content will make it easier to update.

How do I get DAZ Studio 4.5?If you have previously purchased DAZ Studio 4 Pro or DAZ Studio 4 Pro Upgrade, reset your downloads in your Itemized Order History for these products to acquire the latest version. If this is your first time downloading DAZ Studio, simply follow the link below to add this to your cart:

What are the New Features in DAZ Studio 4.5?
1. Separate Software and Content installers, for quicker and easier installs.
2. Selectively save parts of a scene - Save only those items in the scene that you choose, rather than having to remove items from the scene before saving. Then, easily drop that scene subset into another scene using lightweight DSON format files.
3. FBX Import - FBX files can now be round-tripped through DAZ Studio, including rigged and animated items in the scene.
4. New "Ready to Render" scenes - New scenes that are "Ready to Render" have been added as part of the content that is available for DAZ Studio 4.5. Loading these scenes is a great way to start tweaking and playing with some cool scenes.
5. Geometry Shells - This new feature helps blend the textures, shaders and geometry of Geo-Grafted parts to the figure. This will provide a much cleaner feel to grafted geometry.
6. Instancing - Instance items in your scene to copy and scale the original item multiple times saving memory and video resources.
7. Group Node - Similar to layers in paint programs, you can group objects in a scene like a 3D layer.

What other capabilities are in DAZ Studio 4.5?
1. Full implementation of the DSON file format specification - This enables saving scenes in a lightweight format that can be loaded and used by anyone who has installed the products used in the scene. If one or more of the assets used in the scene are not found while the scene is loading, a simple preview is inserted into the scene in its place and a dialog is displayed indicating which files are needed to load the scene in its entirety.
2. Viewport speed dramatically increased - For many interactions, viewport speed will be 2-5 times faster than DAZ Studio 4.0.
3. Load and use most Poser format files as if they were native DSON files - Scenes that are constructed using items loaded from Poser format files and then saved to the DSON format, are also sharable; they maintain references to the required Poser files, rather than the contents of those files.
4. Consolidated viewing/editing of Property Settings - The Property Settings dialog now consolidates more editable information about each property into a single interface; e.g. Presentation Editor, Controllers, Sub-Components, Keys, etc.
5. "Darkside" style is now included - You no longer need to download and install this style separately, it is included as part of the standard installation.
6. Shader Mixer improvements - Shader Mixer has significantly improved workflow and documentation.

Along with many new features in DAZ Studio 4.5, you will also find new documentation on some of the deeper functionality in DAZ Studio on the Documentation Center in the Publishing and DAZ Studio sections.

What should I know about this build?
1. Many, many issues and workflow improvements have been addressed since we released 4.0.3.47. Too many to list here. Please see the DAZ Studio 4.5 Change Log and the DAZ Issue Tracker for more detail.
2. Files saved from this version of DAZ Studio are NOT backward compatible with older versions, including version 4.0.x.
3. Plugins that run in version 4.0.x will not run in version 4.5 without being updated by their respective developers. Many of the plugins developed by DAZ 3D are included in the download(s), but may still require a serial number to unlock.
4. Not all features of FBX are supported on import, so characters from other 3D applications imported in FBX format may or may not come through with all their components.
5. All newly saved presets are recorded in the lightweight DUF format and script based presets (DSA/DSB/DSE files) have been phased out. Many of the script based save presets can still be saved and will load, but the new preset format should be used in their place.
6. The phased out ".DAZ" scene format can still be read, but the option to save to this format has been removed.
7. Support for Poser format content that makes use of Propagating Scale and/or Dependent Parameters (valueOpKey) has been updated. This can cause the behavior of items that use these features to change.
8. The 3Delight render engine included with DAZ Studio 4.5 has been updated to version (10.0.50). This may cause some compiled third party shaders to require an update. Shaders that were compiled using the tools provided in DAZ Studio 4 should already be compatible with both DAZ Studio 4 and 4.5. These shaders should automatically recompile at render-time, but will warn that the shader should be recompiled to improve performance. Shaders built using Shader Mixer are not subject to the change and should continue to function without an update.
9. We suggest that in order to use the PW Shaders you reset your downloads to get the latest version to run with DAZ Studio 4.5.
10. Both DAZ Studio 4.5 Pro AND DAZ Studio 4 Pro files are included in the download you get from the product page in the store. If you got the installer from the DAZ Studio Landing Page the DS4 Pro files ARE NOT included.

Updated information from the Mac Community on OSX 10.8 Installs!:
Rightclick on the installer and choose "Open...", this will trigger the "run
once accept always" mechanism in 10.8, and this also allows all installers
to be run once you've done this one for the DS installer.

This is the Apple recommended way and it works. Recommending to turn of
security is not the proper way to do it.

Forgive me if this has been mentioned before but for those that purchased Daz Pro or variations of it prior to it being offered free of charge, will they be getting this new version free or at a discounted price?

Forgive me if this has been mentioned before but for those that purchased Daz Pro or variations of it prior to it being offered free of charge, will they be getting this new version free or at a discounted price?

I reset my download - and it's there.

I'm making the assume that "Genesis Starter Essentials 1.3" is the default content. I've also got both 4.5.x and 4.0.3.x in the download queue.

Yeah - but that isn't what shows in my itemized order history; I'm trying to find it to reset the download.

OK, I found it -- "The Poseworks Shader Collection" and I'm not sure this bundle has been updated - pwToon shows version 1.1.Strange because everything we can see from this end has the 1.2 files which are the ones that work with DAZ Studio 4.5.

This version is available to all customers and will run either without or without a serial number.

I'm guessing you were as excited as myself with this news and had an ooops moment with your typing. :)
Anyhoot really great news on the update to DS4.5. I'm soooo happy it's finally here. :lol:
I hope you will also post list of the plugins that need / don't need updating. PLEASE! :-)

Do geometry shells have any other function than to aid with geo-grafting? Also, I got a crash to desktop when deleting the main figure with a geometry shell parented to it, so be careful.

For the record, I reinstalled pwSurface2 and the Ubersurface2 shader, both appear to work with this 4.5. I did not reinstall the Uberspotlight, but the one I'd been using up to today still appears to be working.

Yeah - but that isn't what shows in my itemized order history; I'm trying to find it to reset the download.

OK, I found it -- "The Poseworks Shader Collection" and I'm not sure this bundle has been updated - pwToon shows version 1.1.Strange because everything we can see from this end has the 1.2 files which are the ones that work with DAZ Studio 4.5.

Looking further into it.

The bundle was "Poseworks Shader Collection 2009" and the sku was 8254 back then.

Crap, okay Reality will get pushed to DS3A only for awhile. I must have DS4.5Pro. Man, you people never give up do you?

Reality / Lux is the $h*t check out my nice purty renders http://adrikk.deviantart.com/ I stared using it in late feb im closing in on 700 renders oooo weee!I know. I had Reality from DAY 1. I can still use it in DS3 and Pablo says the 4.5 version is just months off. I'm cool with that. I do not use Genesis very often, YET!!

Crap, okay Reality will get pushed to DS3A only for awhile. I must have DS4.5Pro. Man, you people never give up do you?

Reality / Lux is the $h*t check out my nice purty renders http://adrikk.deviantart.com/ I stared using it in late feb im closing in on 700 renders oooo weee!

I know. I had Reality from DAY 1. I can still use it in DS3 and Pablo says the 4.5 version is just months off. I'm cool with that. I do not use Genesis very often, YET!!

LOL gotcha im totally addicted to Lux! It can take longer but with queue rendering you can just let em bake! Paolo just made a statement on the Rendo forum. Im most likely going to ghotse my drive 1st with my 04.37 install juuuussst in case..

I really have no clue why a version can go live when a major feature isn't working correctly??? Area Lights were the one and only reason why I was using DAZ Studio at all a and to test if my M4 MATs work on Genesis, but now I'm back to 4.5 RC2 and another reason to work further with Poser 2012.

Here are my main questions / concerns I dont think I am going to give a rats @ss about geometry shell, not enough to take a chance my workflow could get all messed up. How much better is the autofit vs using it with the transfer utility tool in 4.37 and nobody seems to be answering if 4th gen shoes work properly on genesis now? With 4 if I saved a scene with the autofit tool vs the transfer utility tool some clothing will load all stretched out and distorted.